


Covet

by journeycat



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Drama, F/M, Family Drama, Older Woman/Younger Man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-07
Updated: 2011-07-07
Packaged: 2017-10-21 03:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/220374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/journeycat/pseuds/journeycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you're used to getting what you want, it's hard to be denied.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Covet

Mothers and daughters should never have to compete for the attentions from the same man.

It went against nature, at least for civilized human beings. It was a mother's duty to suffer and sacrifice for the sake of her children. And Thayet, as both a queen and a mother, knew intimately what it was to sacrifice. That was why, the first time she saw her eldest daughter gaze hopefully at that dark and handsome youth of King's Reach, she stepped aside. She was married anyway, and did not need to dally with a boy so many years younger than her. Let Kalasin have her fun.

But then she married into the Carthaki Empire, with its handsome ruler and its ludicrous extravagance, and Thayet both rejoiced and grieved to see her beautiful little girl part with Tortall forever—she grieved far more than she rejoiced, because Kalasin was her baby and her mother's namesake and it ripped her heart to shreds to know that all of her dreams had been dashed simply because of the curse of birthright, but that cruel little part of her thought of Faleron, with his sleek body and lazy grin, and knew what it was to desire.

Of course, Thayet should have known that nothing was ever easy.

From her throne, she watched Faleron dance with Lady Knight Keladry, saw his flashing eyes and the way his hands held her close, and she realized that neither she herself nor Kalasin had ever had his heart.


End file.
